It seems as though XPeng Robotics plans to build a robot unicorn in the future. XPeng is one of the leading electric car companies in China and a rival to Tesla with its EVs sharing many similarities to those made by Elon Musk's company. The G3 SUV, for example, features auto-parking and a drive assist feature similar to Tesla's Autopilot. XPeng's sedan, the P7, has a range of 438 miles, just beating out the 405 miles of the Model S, but it lacks the speed of its American rival. China's developments in robotics have been interesting as of late.

It seems as though XPeng Robotics plans to build a robot unicorn in the future. XPeng is one of the leading electric car companies in China and a rival to Tesla with its EVs sharing many similarities to those made by Elon Musk's company. The G3 SUV, for example, features auto-parking and a drive assist feature similar to Tesla's Autopilot. XPeng's sedan, the P7, has a range of 438 miles, just beating out the 405 miles of the Model S, but it lacks the speed of its American rival. China's developments in robotics have been interesting as of late.

Never mind buying a robot dog for your kids -- you might just get them a mythical creature instead. Chinese EV maker Xpeng has teased a robot unicorn meant for children to ride. As SCMP notes, the quadruped will take advantage of Xpeng's experiences with autonomous driving and other AI tasks to navigate multiple terrain types, recognize objects and provide "emotional interaction." The company is shy on most other details, although the design looks and trots like a cuter, more kid-friendly version of Boston Robotics' Spot. Sorry, folks, you won't prance your way to work.

Never mind buying a robot dog for your kids -- you might just get them a mythical creature instead. Chinese EV maker Xpeng has teased a robot unicorn meant for children to ride. As SCMP notes, the quadruped will take advantage of Xpeng's experiences with autonomous driving and other AI tasks to navigate multiple terrain types, recognize objects and provide "emotional interaction." The company is shy on most other details, although the design looks and trots like a cuter, more kid-friendly version of Boston Robotics' Spot. Sorry, folks, you won't prance your way to work. This robot unicorn is just about as mythical as the'real' thing, too.

This is a guest post. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE. Earlier this month I was in Denmark speaking at the R-18 robotics fair. Denmark is quite remarkable as, despite its size, it had two exits of robotics startups over US $100 million: Universal Robots and MiR, both acquired by U.S. electronics testing equipment maker Teradyne (currently valued around $7 billion). The talk I gave covered our observations at HAX over the past five years from investing in over two dozen robotics startups and meeting hundreds.